A Successful Failure

I try to be successful. I really do! But of lately I feel like the only thing I have been successful at is failing. Take today for instance. I had a goal to get my house clean, finish the laundry, and fly a kite. Why a kite you might ask? Why for scouts of course! I better back up and explain... I am the den leader to 6 very active and fun little 8 year old boys that I adore. I have been trying all week to get scouts done. I tried on Wednesay, but FAILED! Wednesday was irrigation and I was the only one home to take care of it. I rushed home from ShowLow to find the main culvert was plugged up and had to be taken care of. What could I do? I rolled up my sleeves of my nice city clothes and got down on my belly and started scooping all the junk out of the culvert. It was gross, but it HAD to be done! I looked at the clock and realized that I had scouts in 10 minutes. I can do this, I can do this! I ran home to unload my groceries and got all the things ready for our kites, which I had no idea how to make. On the way to the church I drove by the culvert just to check..... dang. It was full again and this time it was flooding over the ditch bank and close to the trailer. UGH! I called my other scout leaders to let them know I would be late and guess what.... they weren't in town yet. DOUBLE UGH! To make a long story short, I had to reschedule scouts. They were so sad, but I promised them we'd make kites on Friday. So here it is today. I have never made a kite by myself, so I googled it and found some really cool kites to make. How hard can it be, right? I stuck with the easiest, no fail kite. After pouring over the computer to make sure I knew EXACTLY how it was done, I went downstairs and got to work. I cut my sticks. I taped them together for the main frame. I cut my kite out of a garbage bag and taped the edges down just as the computer showed me. I made a tail out of the scraps of plastic and attachted my string. I was ready! Now the only problem is there was not wind. So I sat outside with Karly and waited. And waited. What? No wind? Unheard of! Finally there was a faint breeze to try out the kite. I let out my string and threw the kite in the air, but the kite did not fly. I tried again and again, only to fail time after time. After many attempts I decided to research a little more and see what happened. Back to the computer I went. Pretty soon I looked at the clock and realized I had to leave for scouts. Still no closer to making a great kite. I loaded up Karly and away we went. Jason, my brother, was nice enough to come and help out. So the two of us helped cut, tape, trace, and everything else to make these kites. These boys were so excited to fly kites! Finally it was time. We all went outside and one by one they threw their kites up in the air only to see them fall down. They really wanted to fly, but just couldn't! After many failed attempts I apologized profusely for my bad kite making skills and offered them chocolate rolls as a peace treaty. Please don't hate me, please come back next week! So here I sit pondering my day. My laundry still hasn't been done. My house is still a work in progress, and I did not fly a kite. Fail, FAil, FAIL! But I know I'm not a complete failure. I did manage to have scouts, and thy did have fun working on their non flying kites. I know where to locate easy kite instructions that the normal joe smo could probably whip out. My kitchen is the only clean room in the house, but it's a start! And the laundry.. well, it's technically never done. I think I'll celebrate my success with Mr. G's ice cream. Baby steps, baby steps.....

Girls Trip to San Diego

About 6 months ago Kristal asked if I wanted to go on a girls trip with her and a couple of other friends. I thought sure, Karly will be a year and it'll give me a good reason to be done nursing by then. What I didn't know is this would be the hardest thing I've done in a long time! I LOVE my family and as time came closer it was harder for me to think about leaving them. But I did. And I am SO glad I did! I came back home a happier and fatter woman. The company was awesome, and the food... oh the food! It was a great way to start a yearly tradition.

. Kristal is one of my closest friends in Joseph City. We have both lived pretty much our whole lives here in JC and really didn't become good friends until she moved back and our kids went to school together. The longer I know Kristal the more I wanna be like her. She's a great mom and has taught me a lot over the last couple of years.

On Thursday Kristal and I loaded up the suburban and headed to the valleyWe made a quick stop at the hospital so Kristal could snap a couple of pictures of one of the cutest babies I've ever seen. After that we met up with Becky and drove to San Diego. Becky is Kristal's friend from Thatcher who also happens to sell amazing jewelry that we all loved. Isn't she beautiful? It was a fun trip getting to know Becky. She was so easy to get along with and was very patient. Although I must say she has the WORST luck with cars!

When we got to San Diego after a million hours of driving and 2 border patol stops (wait, we ARE still in the USA, right?) , we checked into our fancy smancy hotel the Sheraton.

Next we went to the airport to pick up Melissa. She's Kristal's good friend from Texas, and she dresses so nice! She became our fashion guru as well as our photographer on this trip. She was so amazing! Melissa has a beautiful smile and was just fun to hang out with. I would watch her while we were shopping and try to soak in everything she did. She really should have her own fashion show.

After a quick stop back at the hotel it was off to the mall and to dinner. It was raining that night, but it didn't stop us from walking around the area kinda checking things out. I love San Diego. It was so cool to see all the little shops and all the restaurants. We decided on eating at Sammy's Woodfired Pizza where we got Becky to eat her first artichoke! It was super yummy food. We were all a little tired after that and went back to the hotel for some relaxation.

The next day was Friday, SPA DAY!! We have been talking about this for so long and it was finally here. We all got a massage, facial, and pedicure/manicure. I think we could have stayed there all day. This is our little group after we finished our treatments... wish it would have been before the pimple popping and greasy hair from the massages.

Something else I did is I decided to finally be brave and get my haircut! Kristal has been telling me for about a year that I should do something different with my hair. So I listened... why I waited this long I will never know. ! This was taken right before my haor got chooped off and right after the pampering in the spa. All I can say is Eww, gross Here is a before picture... The after picture you'll see later on.

After the spa we were going to go to the mall for a quick look at the mall but ended up staying there a LONG time. Melissa and Kristal became like the two on what not to wear and had me pick out several outfits to try on. I loved some and didn't quite get some others, so in the end I bought a couple of things for my wardrobe. I learned simple rules like never wear a cardigan buttoned up and when to tuck in a shirt with certain outfits and when to wear a belt. I loved it!

That night we dressed up all pretty with our shiny jewelry and freshly painted toe nails and went to eat at the Melting Pot. Kristal had tried to warn me about this place, but I guess you have to go there to truley appreciate it. The cheese.... mmmm.!!!! We dipped all kinds of yummy things in it and even got a second pot because it was THAT GOOD! The main course was not my favorite, but then it was time for desserts. We had 2 pots of simply HEAVEN sitting in the middle of the table for our dipping pleasures. I will never look at melted chocolate in the same way again.... SO YUMMY!

The next day we once again loaded up in the suburban and headed to the big swap meet in Costa Mesa. Of course we had to stop a couple of times for a photo shoot.....

My eyes were closed in every picture. It was SO bright! But notice my outfit? Melissa and Kristal picked that out for me.... and the jewelry too!

On our wayto the swap meet Melissa also managed to snap a picture of this.....

I love this temple. Next time we'll make time to go there.

We FINALLY made it to the swap meet in the early afternoon and walked all day around that place. It was really a lot of fun. After getting too much sun and declaring it a successful day of shopping, we checked into another super nice hotel in NewPort Beach. I wish we had more time to completly explore this place, it was huge and so pretty.

We HAD to go to the beach next. It was so much fun to get pictures there. The water was cold and it was a little chilly, but we enjoyed ourselves nontheless.

Melissa started snapping away with her sweet camera and took some amazing pictures. Here are a few of my favorites:

We forgot to take pictures of our cute toes after the spa, so we took them at the beach. Can you guess whose toes are whose? Hint, mine are the ones with the ugly feet. I don't know how much photo shopping was done to these pictures, and I don't care. I LOVE these! Thanks Melissa.

We walked the pier and saw tons of people fishing. I had to try! I just borrowed someone's pole. It was just sititng there BEGGING for somebody to pick it up.

After more shopping in the souvineir shops we decided to hit the mall. We went to a mall that was SUPER expensive and had a lot of hoity toity people walking around. I defianetly felt out of place there. We found one store where we could afford something, and it was yummy! Don't look to close at the big ol' circles under the eyes: Long day and good ol genetics.

That night we were all SUPPOSED to go to the jacuzzi by our hotel room, but everyone was too tired to go... ok, everyone except me, anyways. Kristal said a prayer for me that I wouldn't get stolen and I think they went right to sleep. I stayed out there for about an hour and a half just talking to everyone and having a blast. It was our last night in California, and I wanted to enjoy it. The night before was a rough one, as our room next to us there was a couple who were fighting, drinking, and smoking at 2:30 in the morning. We had to call security twice and finally able to get a little more sleep before we left for the swap meet.

The next morning we got up ealry and drove to the airport to drop off Melissa. I was sad to see her go. I loved getting to know her better and having someone tell me how to dress and help go shoe shopping with. I loved her sense of humor and her beautiful smile.

After that we drove and drove and drove! Again we had to stop for border patrol... so weird. They had the drug sniffers walk in front and back of every car that past and some of the unlucky ones had to be searched. Thank goodness we didn't! I would not have liked to unload all that stuff that was in the back of the suburban. We had to make a couple of stops along the way home and finally made it to Mesa to drop off Becky. I loved having Becky on this trip. She made me laugh and was a great bed buddy! I was really glad that she did not strip in her sleep, which is something she apparently does a lot when she travels. Since Becky doesn't live too far away and comes this way sometimes, I hope I can see her again.

Kristal drove the rest of the way home with me as her co pilot. We finally pulled into town about 9:00 that night. I had a lot of fun on this trip. It was a much needed break for not only me, but for my whole family. I learned a lot on this trip about fashion, food, and yes, even farts. Thanks for the memories, and let's do this again, this time with MORE people!

While mom was away.....

I have been with Karly about every second of her life. I' watched her sit up by herelf first,roll over first, and crawl first. I have been waiting for WEEKS for her to finally make her move on walking. So what does she do? She waits until the FIRST trip I had without her to do this.....

That'll teach me to go anywhere without her!

She'll be cruisin everywhere soon and into everything. She's growing up!

p.s. Don't look too close to the mess on the floor... Karly didn't warn me she was about to make her move and I was in the process of cleaning.

The Slacker and the shot put

I have been trying to blog all week, but the problem is I just don't have anything blog worthy to write about. CORRECTION: there have been things I WANT to bkog about, but I want to include pictures and I keep forgetting to bring the dang camera! I will get better.. I will get better... For instance, last Thursday was the Jr. High track meet. It was Kaitlyn's first meet ever! Of all the events that she could have done, what does she do? Shot put. Seriously? My little scrawny 11 year old throwing a shot put... that's like telling a chicken to throw a boulder. Ok, so chickens don't have arms, but that's not the point here. When she came home from track practice the first day I knew we were in trouble. I asked her what events she was going to do and she told me the softball throw. If only it were that easy.... I should also note here that Clarissa is in track too, and she also does shot put. She took the year off last year and decided that she was reay to do it again this year. So, on Thursday I pack up Karly and head to the meet. I got there just in time to see Clarissa throw. She has improved so much since the last time! Her record used to be 13, but now it's 21 feet. Quite an accomplishment for her. Good job Clarissa! Next was Kaitlyn. She is left handed mind you, but I guess whoever was teaching her how to throw the shot put didn't take that into consideration. She stood in the right handed position, swung her right arm, ran up to the front of the circle, then THREW the shot put... just like she would a softball. It went up, and then right back down. Her throw was a whoppin' 5 feet! After some instruction from a coach on an opposing team she did manage to improve her throw... 9 feet, that's almost double! Her goal is to make it to the 10 foot line.. Clarissa told her she would give her an ice cream certificate it she does. Another thing that's been exciting is Karly actually walked! We were enjoying conference on Sunday and Karly just go up and walked. It was exciting and fun to see her, and we have been trying to get her to do it ever since. She has decided that it was a one time trick, and crawling and holding onto fingers is the way to go. Tonight was Ethan's pack meeting. He got his wolf badge and arrow points. I was so proud of him! He's been working hard.... er, I mean I'VE been working hard to make sure he got it before he turned 9. Can you see how excited he is to be there? He is taking a hunters safety course with his sisters and dad, which happens to be going on at the same time as the pack meeting. Bet you can't guess which he'd rather be at! I don't know what this is all about, but with Ethan I rarely do. I just wanted a nice picture of him with his new awards, and this is what I got. I love this kid!

I'm just the incubator

When I look at these pictures it makes me smile. I know why I think I have the best lookin' kids on the block, because they all pretty much came from the same mold.People tell me all the time that my kids look just liker thier dad. I do remember I had something to do with each pregnancy, but apparently I'm just the incubator. Today is April Fools Day. Clarence was on his way to Lake Powell and didn't know what the date was. I called him and told him I had some news. I said I had been feeling under the weather for awhile and so I took a pregnancy test and it came back positive. He was freakin' out and couldn't wrap his brain around the idea. I finally told him it was an April Fools joke. He didn't think it was funny, but I sure did!

But seriously, who wouldn't want a dozen of these cuties?

I wanna be that grinch!